Of Blood and Sand
by Eleawin
Summary: X-over FF8/FF7 – We know that Sorceresses are descendants of Hyne, but what are the source of their powers? Squall is about to find out. Sephiroth/Squall, Rinoa/Squall, Seifer/Squall, warnings for violence, non-con and disturbing smut in later chapters.
1. Chapter 0

**Of Blood and Sand  
**

 **Prologue**

Note : translated from French, not beta-ed. Explicit version will be posted on AO3 (same username)

* * *

 _The room is dark._  
 _He refuses to open his eyes._

 _A part of him is furious, enraged to be so weak, to have forced his own allies to lock him down. Another part is drowning, desperate, hopelessly trying to cling to shreds of hatred to keep a reason to fight._

 _He wants to die._  
 _To give back her wings._

 _And find her, hold her in his arms, and kill Him - he loved her, he hated Him, he feels like he's being pulling apart, his mind broken, clouded in a painful daze. The Other has turned into her, and she has become Him. And who is he now, His knight or His Nemesis? When he looks at himself, he bears the mark of her love on his back, and the mark of slavery on his neck. His body no longer belongs to him._

 _He hurts._  
 _Rinoa is dead. He cannot accept it._

 _Rinoa, Rinoa, Rinoa... Her eyes full of love, her hands soft, her body welcoming and warm... He won't forget her, that's impossible; he had pledged himself to her - he was her knight, her protector, he had sworn to defend her even against the whole world... And he would have – destroy the world, for her. As for the Other…_

 _His sanity wavers – to raise a hand against Him is sacrilege! He is supposed to protect Him, to destroy His enemies, to die and die and…_

 _"No," said the Voice inside him. "You made that promise to Rinoa. Not to this monster. Squall, my brave lion, wake up. "_

 _The Voice is cold and without timbre and feels familiar, but he doesn't have the strength to acknowledge its owner. The Voice pokes him incessantly in his head, again and again, throws itself against his defenses when he thinks he can forget and finally find peace. Making him remember he is still drowning._

 _No. He can't give in. Rinoa is dead. Dead, dead, dead…_  
 _He will avenge her. He'll kill the bastard, even if it's the last thing he'll do._

 _He opens his eyes, stretching his hand forward..._

xxx

"Squall?"

Acting on reflex, Seifer took the hand reaching out in his own palm. Dull gray eyes, still half closed, watched him. Squall looked like crap. Seifer felt like saying 'You're pathetic, my poor Squall'. Instead, he kept silent and helped the man roll on his stomach to stretch his worn-out wings. A gift of Rinoa, this simulacrum of angelic attributes, and oddly not that out of place sticking out from the back of her knight.

He opened his mouth to say something, but the words died in his throat before they could form. Niceties were not his specialties, on the contrary. Seifer didn't like seeing his rival like this, lifeless, obviously beaten and not even trying to fight back.

He had to refrain himself from throwing insults to the perfect, lovely Squall – but not so flawless anymore, hm? From shaking him, slapping his face, humiliating him, just a bit; grinding a bit of salt on his wounds to make sure Seifer wasn't constantly the only one to hurt. It would be only fair.

He wasn't suicidal, so he did nothing. Behind the window, Quistis watched him closely, a dancing reflection on her glasses; and he knew she would not hesitate to try him in court-martial at the first inappropriate word uttered. Frigid bitch.

So, what now... The BGU's Supreme Grand Chief was amorphous and didn't even acknowledge his presence, usually so much loathed... He had no possibility to beat some sense into him or punch him in the face. He felt out of place at the bedside of his rival, especially that for once, he wasn't the one sending him into that hospital bed. He felt stupid, looking at him without knowing what to do, unable to offer words of comfort the other SeeDs wanted him to say.

Seriously, a 'Squall, buddy, don't worry, you're not the only fucker having his brain fried by a vile Sorceress' would really cheer him up, don't you think? Seifer held back a scowl. He had been hunted down, found, and dragged to his old home, all because their poor Commander had fallen apart when his girlfriend had turned out to be a monster.

 _It was also your girlfriend,_ a pesky little voice in his head reminded him, named reason and temperance. He never listened to her. In addition, the fact that it was his **_ex-_** _girlfriend_ added a whole dimension that greatly separated his situation from Squally-boy's. He had nothing to do with Rinoa anymore, except perhaps the vague nostalgia embracing him from time to time, when he felt a little lonely in the dump serving as his hideout. Squall, the pre-pubescent teenager, was madly in love with the witch. And moreover... He was her knight.

Perhaps only another knight could understand what that meant. The word was ill-chosen and not that accurate. _Puppet_. It was closer to the harsh reality. A doll made of meat and blood, manipulated by invisible threads, leaving no room for free will. A phenomenal brain fuck. He had been Ultimecia's puppet, he knew what he was talking about. And the others also knew he knew. Hence the stalking, and the return at home, dragged by the skin of his ass in the corridors of the flying training center. A glorious comeback, for Seifer Almasy...

And all that for...

"What about moving your ass, Squall? You're not gonna tell me you've fallen so low that the only option left to you is to roll yourself into a ball crying like a baby…? "

If he was completely honest with himself, the situation irritated him. The guy who had trashed him a few months earlier – him, the almighty Almasy, had become _that,_ that weak-minded boy, pathetic and so easily being used. _As you have been,_ said the little voice, and for a brief moment Seifer contemplated smashing his head against a wall, just for the perverse satisfaction of seeing it die with him.

"Shut up, Seifer..."

Squall's voice had lost its sharpness and only rose to a murmur, but it was a satisfactory first step. Maybe there was still some Squall in this battered body. Unable to repress a mocking grin, Seifer leaned over the curled form.

"So princess, you think you can control yourself, or do you prefer to keep these pretty chains for a while longer? "

He had been surprised. He had thought Squall would be in the infirmary, as usual, in the bed which should bore his name, for the number of times he had come to occupy it. But Quistis had led him into the basement. He did not know that the place had been turned into a research center since Norg had been chased out.

Squall was detained – oh the irony! The Commander of the BGU was _detained_ in his own base! - in a room under magical protection meant to prevent the use of spells. His gunblade had been taken from him. And as a precaution, long chains hung on the walls encircled his arms and legs, in case the man was taken by the irrepressible urge to throw himself against the tinted glass that formed one of the sides of the room. A little too paranoid, the SeeDs? It was only _Irvine_ he tried to exterminate, after all. No need to make such a fufss.

Squall did not answer. The poor boy seemed totally out of his mind, and, with his crumpled feathers, looked more like a baby bird out from its nest than the proud supreme Head of an elite of mercenaries. Seriously. Why was Seifer losing his time?

Perhaps because humanity was about to be annihilated.  
And since his last check, he was still a human being. On the wrong side.  
Coherent.

"Well, my cute little bird, it's not like I don't have some better things to do ..."

Well, that was a lie. He had _not_ better things to do, and that was the main reason he had not yet beat the SeeDs guarding him into oblivion and run away. He sighed.

"Being a Sorceress's puppet... Not that easy to resist, even for you. But let's say you have favorable circumstances on your side. You obviously do not like the idea of massacring the SeeDs you're leading, that's a good thing," Seifer said. "But you're still a liability… If we were to remove the chains, I bet you will be out from here in a flash. That's a no-no, so be a good boy and just stay in bed."

He looked at Quistis. She frowned but she did not have her bondage whip in her hands, which meant that he had not crossed any lines yet. It would not be long.

"... and you're going to explain what happened, my dear Squall. I hope we have your full collaboration, because it would kind of bother me to have to bring a brand new electric torture wall inside this school…"

This time, Quistis knocked against the window. He ignored her, not even sparing her a glare.

"Where is Rinoa?" he asked, eyes on the brunet who was looking sicker by the minute.

Silence.

"Where is she? You are her knight. I know you can feel her presence. Tell us, let's finish this, Squall... The girl you knew no longer exists. She is a real threat. Your duty, you know, the thing that this school tries to teach us? - is to stop her. Come on, save the world again. You start to get used to it, do you not?"  
"You don't know what you're talking about, Seifer ..."

xxx

They did not understand anything. They couldn't imagine what had really happened, and that it hurt him to think he was probably the only one to apprehend all the horror of the situation. His heart beat too hard in his chest and his vision was still blurry, but he almost felt as if he was regaining control.

Almost.  
It felt like walking on a wire. He could fall into nothingness at any moment.

Why did they call Seifer?  
He could not stand the guy.

His thoughts were clearer, as if the anesthetic veil that had fallen on them had dissipated. The pain was still there. His heart was about to burst. _Bom, bom._ He was a bomb ready to explode, and wishing to be defused as the same time. Ignore, and think.

"Rinoa is dead," Squall said to the empty air.

Facts given with a monotonous voice. There was no place for feelings, for despair or affliction. Stick to the logic behind the evidences: "Rinoa is dead and is not the Sorceress who controls me. "

He could imagine the livid faces turning towards him, mirror image of his own, behind his pretense mask of indifference. He didn't look at them. _Ignore, and think._ Survival was an instinct hard to fight, which surpassed any other impulse or resolve. Committing suicide, desiring to die; for him, it was a way to make sure her memory wouldn't be corrupted, lost and buried in the sand of the past. Memories of Rinoa would survive. That was his promise to her.

"Bullshit," Seifer spat out.

Seifer's indelicate fingers grabbed his hair to force him to look at him, but Squall couldn't care less. He turned his attention towards Quistis, frozen behind the glass wall, a beginning of understanding in her eyes, shock and fright emerging from her stance, and...

"Irvine," Squall said. " He… "

Did he kill him? He refused to remember. His gunblade had hit the sniper, sending his body flying in the air - round eyes, mouth frozen in an inarticulate scream... _Ignore, and think._ He had not checked his vitals. He could have survived.

Quistis confirmed his thoughts.

"Alive. Came out of coma a few hours ago. "

A wave of relief overwhelmed him, and he was surprised. He was still able to feel. But his attention wavered, his inner core shattered. He could feel it; he would not hold out any longer. _Quick. Stick to the facts._

"Irvine knows what happened. Rinoa was killed. Someone took possession of her body. Someone not from our world, just as Ultimecia was not of our time. He… "

His voice was shaken. He hated to let them see such a proof of his weakness. Seifer looked at him strangely, and he hated him too. What was he doing here?

 _Run, run, RUN!_

His body reacted first, even before his mind could acknowledge the threat. He bolted and yanked on his chains and all hell broke loose. Seifer's arm was around him and he was pushed back against the mattress, shouts surrounding them. He didn't fight back. Out of his control, his estranged wings folded around him, protecting him from the world. The room was shaking, as if the ship had hit an obstacle. Piercing alarms were ringing through the school.

"We are attacked!" shouted Quistis, her hand clutching her headphone. "Enemies still unidentified, the BGU has been deviated from its initial trajectory. We are still a few hours away from Esthar. What should we do, Squall? "

And she asking _him?_ _Run, run, run!_ exhorted the Voice, but it was impossible. And he could feel it in his guts now, the Other was close. He was almost there, and if Squall was found, he knew he wouldn't be able to resist.

His decision was made.  
His thoughts were too muddle for him to try to find another solution.

He grabbed Seifer's arm. They hated each other, it was perfect. Perhaps for once, destiny had done the right thing. The blond tried to free himself, scowling at him, but Squall hold him firmly and forced his attention.

"If I lose control when he arrives, kill me. Take Hyperion out now, and get ready."

He would probably never know what Seifer wanted to retort, fury in his eyes, and he did not care.  
The Other was coming, the Other was there, his head hurt so much –walls around them were shaking, dilated, and then suddenly –

Hyne, he hated this mocking smirk.

"My _knight,"_ said Sephiroth.

And everything exploded.


	2. Chapter 1

**OF BLOOD AND SAND 01**

* * *

 _It was like music to his ears._ _Poundings of metal against metal, rocks rolling under light feet, quick intake of air changing into a grunt of exertion and pain... He had missed this, the exaltation and the adrenaline caused by a fight against a worthy enemy._  
 _._  
 _How long has it been? He marveled at the feeling of being free, being able to combat at his heart content. So much was lost to him, trapped in the Lifestream, until this unexpected door appeared before him and released him from his prison._

 _At first, he thought he was finally dying. He was wrong. The light upon his eyes, the touch of the wind on his skin, the beating of his heart, the rush of blood coursing through his veins – and pain, excruciating pain he welcomed with open arms, because it was proof he was returning and back again in a body made of flesh and blood. His cells were yelling, etiolated, deformed and finally tamed by his will, shaped into a_ physical appearance he was familiar with.

 _He was standing alive and in perfect condition, Masamune in one hand and a sparkling emerald in the other - materia?_ _He did not understand what was going on, but his body had a memory, had a life before being his._ _He knew that the man who threw himself on him, face distorted by rage, was Squall Leonhart, and that the boy was a master of the gunblade he threatened him with._

 _He parried, fell back, defended himself against the blade._ _He still needed time to adjust to this new existence._

 _And finally, he laughed._ _  
It was too good to be true._  
In another life, he had been Rinoa Heartilly, fiancée of the leader of the SeeD, and probably the most powerful Sorceress in the world.

 _And now…_  
Now he had come back and -

xxx

[the day before]

"I hate this kind of mission," Squall said.

They were lost in the wild, somewhere in the north of Centra. The Ragnarok had dropped them a few hours earlier and had swiftly left them for Esthar, preparing to pick up Zell finishing a mission there.

Rinoa gave him an amused look. Squall had made tremendous progress in the few past months. He was now able to express verbally his displeasure without being asked, even if it was only to her. Irvine was walking a few yards in front of them, his rifle on his shoulder. She slipped her hand into Squall's and squeezed it gently.

"It could have been worse," she said.  
"Yes... For example, we could have ended in _Esthar,_ instead of Zell."

Six months had passed since the battle with Ultimecia. Five months had elapsed since the signing of a World Peace Treaty, under the supervision of SeeD, and as much time had passed since what she secretly called the "Great Revelation". Laguna Loire was a funny and charming man. Too bad his son was the only one not to think so.

Laguna was ready to do anything to mend his relationship with Squall, which everyone, except the one concerned, found heart-warming but also incredibly entertaining. Laguna's latest attempts had resulted in increasing hiring requests, so many that half of the BGU's workforce was now in Esthar, working to hunt down monsters fallen from the Lunar Cry. Squall would have to go to Esthar himself after a while, Laguna thought. He was underestimating Squall cunning nature.

 _"_ It won't be possible, Mr. President _,"_ had said Squall, when Laguna had called to complain that there was still not enough SeeDs to clean up his country. If only the young Commander could come to lead his troops, the job would be done much faster! the older man had argued, in the hope of luring the brunet within his reach.

Squall had concocted a lie on the spot. "We have already sent all available teams to Esthar. Those who are not in Esthar are already hired, and I happen myself to be enrolled on a mission of the utmost importance."

If it was really possible to call a scooting mission something of the "utmost importance". At least he had agreed that she and Irvine would go with him, Rinoa thought. She was not a SeeD like her friends, but nobody seemed to object to her presence in the BGU - except her father, of course, but she had never listened to him, and it was not today she would begin. Well, not until he accepted her relationship with Squall and approved of him. He was perhaps the only man on this planet to consider Squall incompetent and unworthy – the man had saved the world, for Hyne's sake!

She walked through the forest side by side with her boyfriend, chasing her father from her thoughts. The hike could have been nice if the ground was not so uneven and the air heavy and damp. An easy scooting mission. Travelers had accidentally discovered magic sources in the woods, never recorded on any map. As a measure of caution, the Garden had launched a few years back a program to identify these sources. Spells such as Ultima or Aura should not fall in everybody's hands... Xu had entrusted their team with the task of mapping the area and finding out the exact nature of the magic available. The mission was a piece of cake.

The simplicity of their objectives did not bother her, on the contrary. Because she was not trained, she could not follow her friends when they were performing more challenging contracts, like battling or assassinating. She was not defenseless however. The Sorceress powers in her were still there, obediently asleep when she did not use them. Edea Kramer, who had given her some of her powers, had been an immense help in the discovery and understanding of this strange magic. It was old and ancient. It was different from the magic resulting from junctionning a GF; it was pure, more concentrated. She didn't need GF to cast spells, she didn't even need to draw magic from sources. Something inside her seemed to create it, in unlimited quantity.

She had not told Squall about it. She did not like to discuss her new powers. Hyne, even his own father was not aware of it - or at least not yet. Wait for the Galbadian spy network to get wind of her case, and you could bet that her dad would take her back home by any means possible. She could be a weapon. She knew that only too well.

She took a deep breath. This mission was welcomed. She was getting tired of being confined, as delightful as the BGU could be. If after finding and examining the magic sources there was still some time left, she might be able to cajole Squall to accompany her to Timber. It had been a while she had not seen Zone and Watts.

In front of them, Irvine stopped suddenly. He called them and motioned them to approach.

"I think I found the sources! I got two Ultima and one Meteor just at my feet, and look at all these cure sources… I think there's more here than on Hell Island!"

Squall did not look happy to hear the news. "Such a concentration of powerful magic is not usual. Weird. We have to carefully check the perimeter and map the area. We may need to explore further to make sure not to miss anything."

Well, goodbye Timber... Rinoa sniffed. While Squall was logging intel in his GPS, she ventured further. The forest they were in was lush and green. Numerous plants she did not know the name grew at the foot of the trees. She found two sources of magic behind a bush, and she could see from her spot, further to her right, another one of Aura lodged in a rooted trunk.

The air seemed even heavier with moisture in this part of the forest. Squall was right, it was weird. Maybe she had become more sensitive since acquiring her powers, but she _felt_... how could she put it? They were in an old and powerful place - an anomaly, as were the islands of Heaven and Hell.

"Rin-darling, I just found a cave with lots of magic inside!" Irvine shouted at her. "There's even a good chance for a GF to be found! Squall, do you hear? I just found a birthday present for Selphie!"

Rinoa stifled an amused laugh. Squall was behind her and she could not see him, but she could imagine him burying his face in his hand.

"We're not equipped to explore a cave, or to challenge a GF," she heard him respond in an almost patient tone. "So don't even think about it."  
"But if we don't take it now, someone else will steal it under our noses!"  
"Irvine." Great intake of breath. "We are hours of march from civilization. This forest may be visited once every decade. And Selphie's birthday is two months away."  
"... you're killing all the fun, man."

Rinoa approached the cowboy with dramatically slouched shoulders and patted his back, before turning around to observe their surroundings. Trees as far as she could see. And under their great foliage, endless springs of magic sparkling in their shadows.

"There's something odd," Squall said.

He frowned. Rinoa thought it made him look cute. Broody and cute. She was madly in love with the man, and she had no shame about it.

"We've been walking for hours and we have not been attacked once by monsters."  
"Because you activated the monster repellent, right?" Irvine asked.  
"It's Zell who is junctionned to Nosferatu ..."

Now that Squall was mentioning it, Rinoa had not heard any animal or bird chirps. She was used to Timber forests, teeming with life and monsters. This one was... old, certainly, but still and quiet like it was…

Trapped in time.  
It was exactly that.  
Frozen, unchanging, stopped in its course towards the future, illustration of what Ultimecia was seeking in her mad quest.

Rinoa felt too familiar with the concept. Unconsciously, her arms tightened around her, as if to warm herself. And before she knew it, Squall was already by her sides. A hint of anxiety shone in his eyes, mixed with hidden sparks of care and love. All of sudden, she was no longer cold and the world was looking more colorful.

She has really fallen for the man.  
She did not know if she should be crazy with joy, or frightened.

"Night will fall soon," Squall said. "Let's set up camp and take some rest."

xxx

[now]

Pain was irradiating through all his body. Did someone break all his bones one by one, and then throw him from the top of a cliff?

He could not open his eyes. He was not even sure he was still alive. If that was Hell, then it fucking deserved its name. He moaned in agony. His fingers were so tightly clenched on his gunblade they were probably carved in the metal. He could not make them obey and release their grip. Hyne. He could not even control his fingers. How had he fallen so low?

People were busying around him, without him being able to number them and confirm their identities. A cura spell was casted on him. The magical sting seemed painless compared to the one still running through him.

He still hurt, but it was way better. Another twenty seconds and he might be able to open his eyes. Unfortunately, they were not even granted. A hand shook him hard.

"Almasy! This is not the time to take a nap!"

The frigid bitch was still there. Squall had not even made him the favor to put her down, the ungrateful bastard.

"Almasy!"

The voice of the harpy pulled him back from his torpor. The cura spell had done the work. He felt way better. He grunted and opened his eyes, lifting a hand to his temples. His fingers were still clenched on Hyperion's guard. He was lying on his back, and from his position he could see the hole in the wall that had made Squall and... the Other.

He jumped on his feet. What had happened? He turned to Quistis, still kneeling beside him. Blood was dripping from a cut on her forehead. She had lost her glasses.

"I tried to pursue them, but they simply vanished!"

She was livid. "We must talk to Irvine," she said. "Maybe he can tell us what happened at Centra, and what happened to Rinoa. He may be able to tell us where Squall went!"

Seifer remembered only too well the words of his rival. Rinoa was dead... And a stranger had possessed her, taking over her body? It was unreal. There was no logic, no rational explanations. The man had apparently appeared from nowhere, in the middle of the BGU, in a highly-supervised area. Hell, there was even a magic barrier preventing Squally from harming himself and harming others! Edea, when she still had her powers, wasn't able to do that. And Ultimecia, if she had been able to, would have murdered all the SeeDs in their sleep. It was just not possible!

"How did he get in?" he exclaimed loudly, annoyed to feel so mystified.

He turned to two young SeeDs who were standing there staring at them. "You!" he yelled. "You were on guard near the elevator! Where did he come from?"

"We did not see him," one of them said. "We just heard an explosion, so we came to see what was going on. There was already a hole in the wall when we arrived. And no trace of the Commander."  
"Nida is not going to like it," Quistis said weakly.

Now that it was mentioned, the ground was oddly tilted. The ship was adrift, rocking like a bottle mauled by the waves. If he looked a bit closer, there was even sea water beginning to invade the corridor…

"Infirmary," Seifer decided.

No one tried to stop him when he took the lead and walked up the stairs. He repressed a grin. Now that Squall was gone, maybe it was a good time to plan a coup...

xxx

 _\- the world would be his._ _  
The world had always been destined to be his._

 _Mother, he said._ _  
In this strange world, he could not feel her presence, but she had to wait for him somewhere._

 _He parried an attack which failed to cut him in half and stepped aside._ _Now that he had assimilated the memories of the Sorceress, he knew what were her ties to the other boy - an untamed spirit, and yet... the Sorceress had put a collar around his neck, and had him at the end of a leash!_

 _Leash he had between his fingers now._ _Squall could not hurt him._ _His anger urged him to attack, but HE was SHE, and she was no more..._

 _What a nostalgic feeling._ _  
The boy reminded him of Cloud, when the blond was still young and malleable, and not the weapon the Lifestream and the Cetra had decided to make of him._ _  
He would not repeat the same mistake._ _Certainly not._

 _He made Masamune vanish and opened his arms._

 _"Come to me, Squall!"_

xxx

[now]

The sniper was wrapped in bandages from the top of his neck to his legs, looking like a mummy with only his head band-aid free. Selphie was at his bedside. She barely raised an eyebrow when Seifer went inside the room, closely followed by Quistis and the two SeeDs in charge of overseeing him, the Almighty Great Traitor.

"How is he?" Quistis asked the girl.  
"Fine," the man said, before the Trabia girl could open her mouth. She got up and went to get him a glass of water. "What is happening? The BGU stopped."

Irvine couldn't wait for his wounds to mend enough, so he could gorge himself with curative spells and get out of bed. Or, on the exact opposite, he hoped he wouldn't heal too fast so he could stay away from the field a bit longer. He didn't know for sure. He was pretty messed up. If healing meant having to face Squall again, then he would rather stay put in bed. His chances of survival would increase dramatically.

He glared at Seifer when he sat next to him, taking Selphie's spot by his side. The rude man put down his gunblade on Irvine's bandaged legs, and Irvine scowled. If he could move, he would have been happy to throw the fucking weapon out of the window. Quistis was pale and pressing a tissue on her forehead. Seifer was keeping a bland expression but Irvine could see the pallor of his face. The atmosphere in the room was tense. He braced himself to receive bad news.

"A guy came in and kidnapped Squally-boy," Seifer said, stingy on the details. "What happened during your mission?" he asked briskly. "Squall didn't spill it out before he was taken… or run away with the strange guy, for the hell we know. It's up to you to explain, cowboy."

Irvine turned to Quistis.

"Why did you bring him in?" he asked the blonde instructor, ignoring the man.

Seriously? Things were confusing enough. They did not need another wild card around, for Hyne's sake! Almasy was a liability, and even if Irvine, when he tried really hard, could find him some extenuating circumstances for what happened during the war, he could not forget that he was the one responsible for the missiles destroying Trabia Garden and sacrificing Rinoa to Adel. They might have spent their childhood together, some things were hard to forgive.

"He knows more than we do about Sorceresses, Irvine," Quistis explained quietly. "He can help. Fujin and Raijin are back too, and they promised they would be on their best behavior and keep an eye on him."

Irvine snorted. Great, it was simply awesome. Wait for the news to reach Zell; clearly, he would be mad with joy upon the return of the trio that tormented him during all his student's years. Irvine would have loved to get a look on Squall's face when the news of his rival coming back was broken to him.

Well.  
Not sure that Squall was interested by rivalry these days.  
The man was surely too busy playing evil knight to bother.

He immediately felt remorse thinking that. Hyne, he was not supposed to have this kind of bitter thoughts, not when one of his friends had vanished into thin air, and his girlfriend as well. His head hurt. Unconsciously, his right hand clenched against his chest, where Squall's gunblade had slashed him on the torso. Squall was just… terrifying. He hoped never having to confront him again. He felt like a coward but couldn't help it. He was a _sniper_ , not a close-range fighter.

"Irvine," Quistis said. "We need your report..."

She spoke softly, and for that Irvine was grateful. Selphie had come closer and slipped a glass of water into his hand.

"I'm worried about Squall," Quistis continued. The blonde was pale and looked ready to pass out, even if it would certainly take more to bring her down. Her eyes were a bit glazed. "And if you can tell us more about the man who came to get him, Irvine ..."  
"I wish I could help…"

Couldn't they see he was as lost as they were?  
He sighed and tried to make himself a bit more comfortable against the hard pillow behind his shoulder blades, stalling for time.

"We were on a scooting mission", he began. "Xu asked us to investigate magical sources that travelers had found in a forest in the north of Centra. After a long trek, we found the place, and it was as the mission file said: plenty of powerful magic sources, everywhere. It was rather odd. There was also a cave nearby, but we didn't explore it. Not at the time, anyway. Night was coming, we were all tired…"

He licked his lips, took the glass to his face and gulped down all the water. They were staring at him, without interrupting. It was a nice change to be at the center of their attention.

"So, we prepared for the night and went to rest. I took the first guard shift so that the two lovebirds could have some privacy. There was nothing to report, and I went to sleep when Squall's turn was up… But when I woke up a bit later, he and Rinoa were gone."  
"What happened then?" Seifer asked.

Seifer was obviously champing at the bit to swing into action. He would have probably preferred to requisition a ship to run after Squall, Hyperion in hand, rather than listen to his debriefing.

"I searched for them. I had a bad feeling. Something must have happened, and I thought Squall was trying to take care of things all on his own again, leaving without alerting me…"

Because it was what the brunet did, taking care of things alone, without asking for help, even when his friends were there for him, waiting to be noticed and acknowledged.

"Suddenly I heard a scream. It was Squall, coming from the cave we were camping near. So I grabbed my Bertha and rush there. And then…"  
"An then, you got a good taste of his gunblade," Seifer finished, condescendingly patting Irvine's leg with the tip of his own blade. "You did lose hard."  
"Is it a game to you!?" Irvine barked.

Hyne, he understood why Squall nor Zell could not stand the guy.

Seifer chuckled. Cowboy was on the verge on a nervous breakdown since his confrontation with Leonhart. He could not exactly blame him. Squall had this talent. He was watching Irvine closely since entering the infirmary. He knew that he was acquainted with the sniper and had even grown up with him, but it was only a hazy reminiscence. He heard GFs feed on their host's memories. It had not disturbed him more than that. His GFs could take them all; better for him if he could forget his shitty life.

Still, in his fuzzy memories, Irvine was supposed to be someone friendly, a bit obsequious perhaps, a brave and indolent character willing to go to any extend to please others. That being said, right now, he was neither friendly, nor indolent. Little Irvy had changed... Like all of them, actually. And Squall, most of all.

He listened Irvine finishing his report with only half an ear, his thoughts irresistibly returning to the man who was now the leader of Balamb Garden.

"I found Squall near the entrance. Rinoa wasn't there. Squall was delirious. I tried to make him tell me what happened, but he brushed me off and ran away further inside the cave. It was a real labyrinth. When I finally found him again…"

What would happen to Squall?  
Was he going to shatter, losing his sanity and self?

"... He was passed out in one of the inner caverns. I thought he was injured. And then, I saw this other man... He had that long sword in his hand, and I assumed it was he who had wounded Squall. I took aim at him with my gun…"

He would fall into anguish if Rinoa really was no more. He would know despair again. Seifer had always wanted to shake him up each time he saw the brunet brooding darkly in a corner.

"And Squall attacked me. He was not pretending. The blow hit me, and I swear, I really thought I was dying. Blood everywhere, and then I was out."

He had the emotional intelligence of an oyster. When things didn't go his way, he retreated behind his shell and refused any contact, especially if there was a chance he would be dragged outside his comfort zone. Seifer was one of the lucky bastard worthy of Mr Icicle's attention, never being ignored or overlooked. But it was after years and years of mischief and relentless teasing, until the day Squall just snapped and jumped on him a gunblade in hands.

"When I regained consciousness, I was hurting like hell, but I was no longer bleeding. And above all, I realized that we were flying. With no vessel."

Rinoa had done her little tricks. It took at least a Sorceress to get under the skin of Squally-boy. She had succeeded where others have failed, even Quistis, the poster-girl who seemed to swoon every time Squall entered her field of vision.

"It was crazy. He had a fucking pair of wings on his back. A bit like those Rinoa sometimes has when she uses her Sorceress's powers... It was just crazy."

And now, after only a few months of relative peace, everything fell apart. Squall, leader of SeeDs? It was an illusion. Seifer wanted to laugh. Whatever that boy was holding, he was bound to lose it sooner or later. Seifer did not know whether to rejoice or feel sorry for his rival. He had such a complicated relationship with Squall...

"And that's when he told me... that Rinoa had saved us both. But that she couldn't return with us."

Squall, where are you?  
Are you strong enough, resilient enough to win against your enemies, even if the enemy was Rinoa?

"…That she was possessed again, but this time, it was too late to save her."

He could imagine the scene. He was grasping to an inkling of understanding. The man he had seen earlier in the basement... Appeared out of nowhere, as if he had the power to build a body made of thin air. Impossible, of course. Who was he, and how was he linked to Squall? And to Rinoa – soft and tender Rinoa, unable to really hurt a living soul. How could she be _him_ ?

Nobody said anything when it was obvious Irvine had done telling his story. The silence in the room was deafening. Nobody wanted to mention that, even after the cowboy's recollection, they still had no clue on what was going on. They weren't sure that Squall was still alive. For all they knew, he might have met the same fate as his girlfriend.

Seifer closed his eyes.  
What a crappy day.

xxx

[In another time, in another world…]

 _You must come and see us, please, Cloud..._

He awoke with a start, alone in his room. His hand instinctively grabbed his sword, always within reach. Tifa called that being paranoid. He called that being careful. It was pitch dark. The bar had closed for the night hours ago, and the city was quiet, almost silent.

His face was damp with perspiration. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his heartbeat, still a bit disoriented. It had been months he hadn't dreamt about her, finally finding solace in his peaceful life. He had Tifa now. And Denzel, and Marlene. They formed a dysfunctional family, sometimes weird and awkward, but a family nonetheless. Tifa accepted him as he was, with his brokenness and past hurts, never asking anything from him in return.

He ran a hand through his hair and sat on his bed. What did Aerith - no, the Lifestream – want with him this time? Wouldn't it be better for him to ignore the call, and just go back to bed?

...the very fact of having this thought was proof enough that he was healing, and he felt oddly pleased. The old him, guilt-ridden, would have jump out of the house and run to the church without any care. He was such a sucker.

Well. Aerith's voice had sounded worried, but not particularly alarmed. He was still indebted to the Planet, so he decided to visit the church tomorrow, to see if he could learn more about what the Lifestream wanted.

Annoyed and still confused, he collapsed on his bed and closed his eyes.


End file.
